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Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Military Matters and Modern Marvels

Steve Tennant, Fort Leavenworth's Command and General Staff College, snapped this photo of my helping with media training in his class last week. It was a great class--these guys just get better and better. I enjoy this more than relaxing on the beach, honestly!

_________________________________________Modern Marvels

Freddy from Mayberry sent me these photos and I think they're just incredible. I'm emailing my friends in France to ask if they have actually driven this route. It reminds me of Eddie Hunter's discussion of the Bay/Bridge Tunnel a few days ago. I'm not sure I could navigate this, but it's really not unusual for us to drive above the clouds back home. I used to do it every day going up Fancy Gap Mountain.

The Millau Viaduct is part of the new E11 expressway connectingParis and Barcelona and features the highest bridge piers ever constructed. The tallest is 240 metres (787 feet) high and theoverall height is an impressive 336 metres (1102 feet), making thisthe highest bridge in the world. It's taller than the Eiffel Tower . Interestingly, the Millau Viaduct is not straight. Why? It's because a straight road could induce a floating sensation as you drive across it. So, a slight curve remedies that feeling. The curve is 20km in range. Moreover, the road has a light incline of 3% to improve the visibility and reassure the driver. An amazing engineering feat!

The last British survivor of World War I's grinding trench warfare was made an officer of the French Legion of Honour on Monday. French Ambassador Maurice Gourdault-Montagne awarded 110-year-old Harry Patch the medal at a ceremony in Patch's nursing home in Wells, 190km west of London, Britain's Ministry of Defence said in a statement. Patch, who served as a machine-gunner in the 1917 Battle of Passchendaele, told Gourdault-Montagne he was proud of the honour.

"Ambassador, I greatly appreciate the way your people respect the memory of those who fell, irrespective of the uniform they wore," he said in a> raspy, deliberate voice. "I will wear this medal with great pride and when I eventually rejoin my mates it will be displayed in my regimental museum as a permanent reminder of the kindness of the people of France."

Patch is one of only two surviving British veterans of World War I, according to the Ministry of Defence. The second, 112-year-old Henry Allingham, served as an airman. Patch had already been made a Knight of the French Legion in 1998, along with more than 300 other veterans of the conflict, in which more than eight million soldiers perished. An officer of the French Legion of Honour is a higher rank. Patch was called up for service in the British army in 1916 when he was working as an apprentice plumber. Thrown into the Allied offensive to take the village of Passchendaele, near the Belgian town of Ypres, he was badly wounded and three of his best friends were killed by shrapnel. Patch was due to return to France when the war ended in 1918. He went home, returned to work as a plumber, and raised a family. He didn't start talking about his war experiences until the 21st century.

One of the bridge-tunnels that I noticed in my internet cruising is the one from Denmark to Sweden, the Oresund (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oresund_Bridge) across the Great Belt of the Kattegat. We all need to go there and experience all of these.

Tickets to Kansas Hall of Fame

June 21 ---Tickets to the Kansas Hall of Fame Reception and Induction are available at the Great Overland Station or you may order tickets to the Induction at Eventbrite.com. The tickets to the reception at the Great Overland Station are $150 each and include the Induction as well as preferred seating for that event. Tickets to the Induction Ceremony at White Concert Hall, Washburn University, are $20. Among the honorees are 9 members of the band KANSAS (original, current, producer) and Laura Siegel Larson whose father created Superman. This will be an awesome event and I am so proud to be co-founder of the Kansas Hall of Fame.

Mary Todd Lincoln: Unhinged and Uncensored

About Me

A native Virginian, Deb has adopted Kansas. She co-hosts the weekly TV show, Around Kansas and is the resident historian at Historic Topeka Cemetery. Her third book with the History Press is Kansas Music: Stories of a Rich Tradition, released November, 2014, with a foreword by Allen Blasco, KMHOF President. The Civil War in Kansas was released in April, 2012, Foreword by Gen. Richard B. Myers, 15th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Her book, Kansas Forts and Bases: Sentinels on the Prairie, with co-author Michelle Martin, was released in February, 2013.
She has appeared in more than a dozen documentaries, most recently Gunslingers and The Road to Valhalla. She has appeared on American Experience, History Channel, Discovery Channel, PBS, and was a featured speaker on C-SPAN. Deb has been the guest on dozens of talk radio shows around the country.

EME Speakers Bureau

If you are planning a convention or just a special event, contact Deb or one of her colleagues at EME Speakers Bureau (educate, motivate, entertain). This talented group has expertise and insight on a variety of topics. Visit their website at emespeakersbureau.com or email emespeakers@aol.com for schedules and fees.

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"Never be haughty to the humble or humble to the haughty.”--Jefferson Davis